Nurse Found Guilty On 2 Charges, Including Criminally Negligent Homicide, In Fatal Medication Error

A former nurse has been found guilty on two charges in the death of a 75-year-old patient after she administered the wrong medication to the woman at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in December 2017.

A Nashville jury found 38-year-old RaDonda Vaught guilty of criminally negligent homicide and gross neglect of an impaired adult.

Vaught was initially facing a charge of reckless homicide for the death of Charlene Murphey, but the jury found her guilty on a lesser charge.

“RaDonda Vaught acted recklessly, and Charlene Murphey died as a result of that. RaDonda Vaught had a duty of care to Charlene Murphey, and RaDonda Vaught neglected that. … The immutable fact of this case is that Charlene Murphey is dead because RaDonda Vaught couldn’t pay attention to what she was doing,” Assistant District Attorney Chadwick Jackson explained to the jury during closing arguments.

In 2017, Vaught withdrew a vial from an electronic medication cabinet and administered the wrong drug to Murphey, and somehow overlooked signs of her deadly mistake.